WEBPALS MOBILE EXPOSES: ASIAN AND AMERICAN MOBILE GAMERS ARE TOTALLY DIFFERENT

February 26, 2019 3min

Great news for gaming brands and app developers! Industry experts forecast that the global games market will be worth a staggering $180.1 billion by 2021 – and we expect mobile games to contribute a great deal.

What’s All That Craze Over Mobile Games?

The source of insanely high demand for game apps is 3.39 billion mobile users around the world, out of whom 2.2 billion play mobile games, mainly on smartphones.

Micro-leisure moments also contribute to the growth of mobile game apps. We’ve seen a rise in the moments of spare time when consumers use their mobile phones to play games – and they have a wide variety of mobile apps to choose from. App Annie shares that there are about 900,000 mobile games available live across the app stores around the world (Apple App Store – 350,000; Google Play – 550,000).

Is It Worth to Invest in Mobile Games in Asia?

The Asia-Pacific region leads the way in-app spend, dethroning both North and South America.

Asian users spend $12 billion yearly on mobile games, especially South Korea and Japan, which, seem to top other global markets when it comes to average game spend per user. If a game is interesting enough for an Asian user, he/she is more likely to spend money on it than a user from the U.S.

Countries like Indonesia and India have a lot to offer for mobile app developers as well. Industry players argue that by 2021, Southeast Asia alone will house 250 million mobile gamers and drive $2.4 billion in revenue. As for India, it seems to drive the growth in downloads on Google Play, together with Southeast Asia.

Despite China’s recent ‘game freeze,’ it’s still regarded as the next big frontier for mobile games. Newzoo predicts that by 2021, China’s mobile games market will be responsible for as much as 70% of the global games industry’s revenue.

Since game giants like NetEase hold 70% of the Asian market share, Western game developers may find themselves thinking twice before entering the market. However, 30% seems like substantial revenue, if you think about the total game spend in Asia.

As Ethan Collins, a business development manager at Yodo1, a China-based publisher, says:

“Top players in China will drop tens of thousands of dollars in-app without blinking an eye.”

What’s the Reason for The Rapid Growth of Game Apps in Asia?

Young mobile gamers are the force responsible for the rapid growth of the Asian mobile games market. Our data revealed that younger people in Asia are much more inclined to download an app than the older generation in Asia. This can be seen from the clear downward trend in the click-to-install rates -people among the older audience are clicking through mobile apps but not installing the game or product.

Mobile games growth in Asia is also driven by the frequency with which people play. Gamers engage with mobile games daily, providing app marketers and developers enough opportunities to promote new features.

What’s Up with Game Apps in North America?

North American revenues from gaming came to a whopping $32.7 billion in 2018, most from mobile, increasing by 10 percent each year.

Compared to APAC though, North America is a very mature market, where the competition of mobile apps for attention with other types of entertainment is very fierce.

Newzoo shared that American women interact with mobile apps more than men. According to the survey, 65% of American women ages 10-65 play mobile games. The finding should hint on very high installation rates among the female audience in the U.S. However, Webpals Mobile’s campaign data showed a slightly different picture: average CPI for women in the U.S. is 23% higher than it is for men.

This proves that American women are less likely to install a mobile game than men. That’s different from the Asian market, where CPI for females is twice as higher than CPI for the male audience. Research revealed that Malaysia has the largest number of female players among all age groups.

Let’s wrap it up by saying that both Asia and the U.S. hold a lot of promise for mobile game developers, each in its own way. Game developers that know how to convey the right message to different audience segments in various markets and to buy media for those segments at the right price will drive scalable growth to their apps.